Known as the “quiet Beatle”, the guitarist and singer George Harrison was born in Liverpool back in 1943 and helped to form the group alongside John Lennon and Paul McCartney in 1960. He was the youngest member of the band and a fundamental part of their sound, although he didn’t have much space to present his own songs since Paul and John were the main songwriters and many times didn’t accept his songs well. But obviously, Harrison wrote many incredible songs that are one of the best parts from their discography.
So they really were a huge influence to countless generations of artists and alongside artists like Bob Dylan, are one of the most covered bands in the history of music. Many of these versions became even as famous as the original one done by The Beatles and there was one that George Harrison really loved and said that was really good.
The Beatles cover that George Harrison said was really good
The covers have existed since the first days of the music business. There are artists who became famous and practically never really wrote their songs, for example. There are tracks that were first recorded by an unknown artist but then became a huge hit when made by someone else.
Almost every famous band already recorded songs which were not originally written for them or by them. That’s the case of The Beatles too. Before them and Bob Dylan, it was very common that bands worked with writers who were not part of the group. On their debut album, for example, “Please Please Me” released in 1963, among the 14 tracks, six songs were covers. George himself had the huge hit “I’ve Got My Mind Set On You” on his solo career, which was a cover from James Ray and Hutch Davie released in 1962.
One of the most famous songs George wrote for The Beatles is “Something” from their 1969 album “Abbey Road”. The ballad reached the first position on the charts of many countries. So consequently were re-recorded by other artists during the next decades. In an interview with MuchMusic back in 1988 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage), the late musician revealed that his favorite version of the track was made by the American artist James Brown.
“The best one I ever heard was (from) James Brown and he did it in 1972. But he did only as the b-side of a re-recorded version of ‘Think’, which is a very old song of his. So it was only on the b-side. I sent him a postcard and said: “You should make it the A side. It’s a killer! It’s really good,” George Harrison said.
Harrison said that he had Brown’s version on his jukebox at home
Talking with Joe Smith back in the 80s, Harrison praised the version again. He even revealed that he had it on his Jukebox. “The best version of “Something” is James Brown, and it’s a killer, it is. And I even sent him a postcard saying you should put it out as a single. I’ve got it on my jukebox at home. But, you know, it’s brilliance. It’s absolutely brilliant,” George Harrison said.
Harrison has always been a fan of James Brown and American music in general. As told by NME, the musician listed to the magazine Record Mirror back in 1965 the songs he had in his jukebox at the time. One of the tracks was James Brown’s “Try Me”, from the album “Please, Please, Please” released in 1958.
James Brown was 10 years older than George and started his musical career a few years earlier in 1954. He was one of the most important American artists of all time. Not only for his songwriting and voice, but also for his incredible dance moves on stage. He was the inspiration for many other frontmans in the following decades.
A really prolific artist, Brown released simply 59 studio albums during his career. He sold an estimated amount of more than 50 million records worldwide. But his career came to an end in 2006 when he died at the age of 73.
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, two years before The Beatles who were at the ceremony in 1988. George Harrison was included as a solo artist. But that only happened in 2004 when he had already passed away.